Currently, many wine refrigerators have storage units and doors consisting of mainly glass so that someone can look in and see the contents of the refrigerator without opening the door. In many refrigerators, the shelving units hold the wine bottles in some fashion. In some examples, the shelving units may also have one or more wine racks for propping up the bottle of wine for display.
FIG. 1 shows an example of a related art wine rack unit 100. The wine rack unit 100 has a front portion 101, a body portion 102, and a foot portion 103. As can be seen in FIG. 1, a wine bottle 110 rests in the wine rack unit 100 and is held into place by virtue of the foot portion 103. As can also be seen in FIG. 1, the neck portion 110a of the bottle 110 hangs freely past the front portion 101 and an upper end of the base portion 110b sits on the front portion 101 so that the bottle 110 is propped upwards.
The design shown in FIG. 1 advantageously secures the bottle in an upright position. But, when an entire wine rack is designed in this manner, the number of bottles that can be positioned adjacent to each other for display is limited to the overall girth of the bottle. That is, when the wine rack sits in a shelf of a wine refrigerator, the bottles can only be placed in the manner shown in FIG. 1 for display. Thus, when several bottles are used in a wine rack of this design, the number of bottles is limited by the girth of each bottle.
Thus, there is a need for a wine presenter that can efficiently hold more bottles of wine for presentation.
A bottle presenter is described herein that is configured to hold one or more bottles. The bottle presenter has a base portion configured to support the bottle presenter, a foot portion operatively coupled to a bottom side of the base portion and configured to rest the bottle presenter on a surface, and an elongated portion having a bottom end, a top end, a front side, and a back side. The elongated portion is operatively coupled to the base portion at the bottom end and extends, e.g., in an orthogonal direction from the base portion. The elongated portion may have one or more grooves configured to hold at least a portion of a bottle. The bottle presenter is configured to hold one or more bottles on both the front side and the back side of the elongated portion of the bottle presenter.
Another aspect relates to a wine shelf configured to hold one or more wine bottles. The wine shelf has a body portion, a foot portion located at an end of the body portion and configured to hold a bottom end of the one or more wine bottles, and a wine rack configured to hold one or more wine bottles. The wine rack has a base portion configured to affix the wine rack to the body portion of the wine shelf, a foot portion operatively coupled to a bottom side of the base portion and configured to lock the wine rack into the wine shelf, and an elongated portion having a bottom end, a top end, a front side, and a back side. The elongated portion is operatively coupled to the base portion at the bottom end and extends in an orthogonal direction from the base portion and the elongated portion has one or more grooves configured to hold at least a portion of a bottle. The wine rack is configured to hold one or more bottles on both the front side and the back side of the elongated portion of the wine rack.
Yet another aspect relates to a refrigerator configured to hold one or more bottles and having a storage area having one or more shelving units, and a door configured to have a transparent body thereby allowing contents stored in the storage area to be visible when the door is closed. The one or more shelving units has a body portion, a foot portion located at an end of the body portion and configured to hold a bottom end of the one or more bottles, and a bottle presenter configured to hold one or more wine bottles. The bottle presenter has a base portion configured to affix the bottle presenter to the body portion of the one or more shelving units, a foot portion operatively coupled to a bottom side of the base portion and configured to lock the bottle presenter into the one or more shelving units, and an elongated portion having a bottom end, a top end, a front side, and a back side. The elongated portion is operatively coupled to the base portion at the bottom end and extends in an orthogonal direction from the base portion and the elongated portion has one or more grooves configured to hold at least a portion of a bottle. The bottle presenter is configured to hold one or more bottles on both the front side and the back side of the elongated portion of the bottle presenter.
In a non-limiting, example implementation the one or more grooves in the elongated portion is configured to hold the bottle around a neck portion of the bottle, the neck portion being smaller in circumference compared to a base portion of the bottle.
In another non-limiting, example implementation holding the bottle around the neck portion allows the bottle presenter to efficiently position the one or more bottles on each side of the bottle presenter thereby increasing a total number of bottles that can be held by the bottle presenter.
In yet another non-limiting, example implementation the bottle presenter is configured to be affixed to a shelving unit, the shelving unit optionally housed in a storage unit.
In another non-limiting, example implementation the bottle presenter is a wine rack configured to hold one or more wine bottles.
In yet another non-limiting, example implementation the one or more grooves comprise milled semi-circles configured to nest a neck of a bottle in position in the bottle presenter.
In another non-limiting, example implementation the elongated portion is more than twice in length compared to the base portion.
In yet another non-limiting, example implementation the base portion is configured to be partially open so that at least a portion of a wine bottle can rest within the openings of the base portion of the wine shelf.